Quote:
Originally Posted by Killer_Demo
Turlock Poker Room. Ever heard of it? Grinder Mizrachi is affiliated with this card room. How would you know? Or are you just gum flapping?
If a poker room is regulated by a gaming commission, it is highly unlikely that they will risk their license by tolerating such open cheating. This is likely more true for casino based card rooms.
If it is a unregulated cardroom, operating in a legal grey area, then there might be some favoritism, but they have more to lose if they get a bad reputation than they have to gain by favoring regs.
Cheating in poker is actually exceptionally rare. You will see floor rulings tend to favor certain players, but out and out overt stealing of chips is very unusual. I have played thousands of MTT's, and honestly cannot remember a situation where a dealer outright stole chips from one player to favor others.
So, no, I don't know the specific room that you played in, but having played in many rooms, I can say that it is extremely rare to see cheating as you described it occur in an above board poker room.
Someone more familiar with the California card room situation can probably add more insight into how they are regulated and licensed.